Universal Coronavirus Vaccine Breakthrough: A Single Shot That Could Protect You From COVID, MERS, and the Common Cold
Universal Coronavirus Vaccine Breakthrough: A Single Shot That Could Protect You From COVID, MERS, and the Common Cold
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Also, fuck cancer. (Cancer vaccines may be next, the end of the article.)
I see this often, but cancer isn't caused by a viral infection. Are there vaccines that exist to prevent non-viral related diseases?
Some of them can be. HPV is the typical cause of cervical cancer, which is the one I can think of off the top of my head.
That's not actually true. There's a bunch of viruses that can cause cancer:
So we'd be vaccinating those infections, not cancer itself
Fine by me.
Sure ok.
Not true at all. Viruses do induce cancer, likely much more than we realise. HPV is the clearest example, but also EBV and Hep B https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-019-0558-9
There are also several cancer vaccines showing success in stage 3 trials: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41591-023-00072-0
Vaccines could theoretically be used to train the immune system to essentially attack cancer cells in much the same way we already use immunotherapy. Though as far as I understand it, we have yet to fully develope one.
I'm a bit concerned about that TBH. I'm not a doctor or medical researcher though so if they make one I'll probably be an early adopter anyway. But since cancer cells are body cells with a problem, it feels like a screw up on a cancer vaccine would just lead to some exciting new autoimmune disease.
Vaccines at a simple level just train your immune system to attack certain proteins. If you could identify a protein that differentiates cancer cells from healthy cells then you could make a vaccine for cancer.
I do not have a degree in biology, take this info with a grain of salt. If a credentialed individual has better info, please speak up.